04-03-2008, 11:07 PM
"The Silk Road" ( only named so by a German geographer in the 19th century) was not a single road, but a network of inter-connected roads, some 6,500 km aprox long. It probably began to take shape around 300 BC as a series of caravan routes from China to Central Asia, later linking to the Middle-eastern traditional trade routes and ultimately all the way to the Mediterranean.
Along it the East sent silk, jade, spices, ginger, tea, peaches, paper, and eventually printing methods and gunpowder.....
From the West came glass, grapes and wine, cotton, wool, precious gems, ivory, and larger breeds of horses....
As a trade route, it reached it's peak under the Mongols who improved the roads for much of their length, but it began to decline in the 14th century, mainly due to the fall of the Mongol Empire, and the rise of sea routes.
The first person we know of to traverse the whole route, ( from West to East) was a Nestorian sect Christian priest called Olopun in 635 AD, whose name is to be found inscribed on a stela at Sian-Fu ( now called Xian) in north-west China, and who apparently brought with him (according to the inscription) "true sacred books".
The first recorded traverse from East to West is that of Rabban Sauma, also a Nestorian priest, in 1279 or 1280 AD, sent by Kublai Khan ( of Marco Polo fame) and the Il-Khan of Persia, Arghun, on a diplomatic mission. He delivered letters to the Pope in 1287,(but unfortunately Honorius IV had died, and the cardinals went into conclave for a long time!)He went on to Paris to meet King Philip the Fair, and England to meet King Edward I, returning to Rome in 1288 where Pope Nicholas IV had finally been elected.Rabban returned to Persia in the summer of 1288. The Kings had agreed to an alliance with the Mongols to Crusade against the Islamic states......which never occurred for a variety of reasons..........
Along it the East sent silk, jade, spices, ginger, tea, peaches, paper, and eventually printing methods and gunpowder.....
From the West came glass, grapes and wine, cotton, wool, precious gems, ivory, and larger breeds of horses....
As a trade route, it reached it's peak under the Mongols who improved the roads for much of their length, but it began to decline in the 14th century, mainly due to the fall of the Mongol Empire, and the rise of sea routes.
The first person we know of to traverse the whole route, ( from West to East) was a Nestorian sect Christian priest called Olopun in 635 AD, whose name is to be found inscribed on a stela at Sian-Fu ( now called Xian) in north-west China, and who apparently brought with him (according to the inscription) "true sacred books".
The first recorded traverse from East to West is that of Rabban Sauma, also a Nestorian priest, in 1279 or 1280 AD, sent by Kublai Khan ( of Marco Polo fame) and the Il-Khan of Persia, Arghun, on a diplomatic mission. He delivered letters to the Pope in 1287,(but unfortunately Honorius IV had died, and the cardinals went into conclave for a long time!)He went on to Paris to meet King Philip the Fair, and England to meet King Edward I, returning to Rome in 1288 where Pope Nicholas IV had finally been elected.Rabban returned to Persia in the summer of 1288. The Kings had agreed to an alliance with the Mongols to Crusade against the Islamic states......which never occurred for a variety of reasons..........
"dulce et decorum est pro patria mori " - Horace
(It is a sweet and proper thing to die for ones country)
"No son-of-a-bitch ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country" - George C Scott as General George S. Patton
Paul McDonnell-Staff
(It is a sweet and proper thing to die for ones country)
"No son-of-a-bitch ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country" - George C Scott as General George S. Patton
Paul McDonnell-Staff
